A pal said at the weekend: “When Victoria was given the heads-up on Wednesday about David’s interview, she was absolutely devastated.

The Beckhams arriving in Sydney. Picture: BackgridSource:BackGrid

“She has no idea why he would say such insensitive things and embarrass her like this in public.

“As you can imagine, it was as if a nuclear bomb had gone off in the Beckham household when she found out. To say it’s not been the best of weeks is an understatement.”

The full interview sparked further shockwaves when it aired. Former Spice Girl Victoria was pictured looking glum, with son Cruz putting an arm around her shoulders, as the family headed out in Sydney.

The couple at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May. Picture: Danny Lawson/AFPSource:AFP

The Beckhams had been invited to Australia by Prince Harry, who wanted them to appear with him at this week’s Invictus Games for injured service personnel. Speaking to The Sunday Project’s host Lisa Wilkinson, the former soccer star said: “Marriage is always about hard work. Your children, they want your time and they deserve your time.

“We are hardworking and we feel like that is the right way to bring up our children, to prove and to show to them that you have to work really hard to be successful.

“We’ve been married for a long time now.”

David, who is launching a football team in Miami, also addressed why he was missing from last month’s car-crash Vogue cover shoot with Victoria and their four children, Brooklyn, 19, Romeo, 16, Cruz, 13, and Harper, 7.

“The amount she’s achieved in a short space of time with four beautiful children, you know, we have a beautiful dog. Obviously, in her business world, to be on the front cover of Vogue was a huge thing and then we did a separate picture for another cover. But to have been married for the amount of time that we have, you know, it’s always hard work.

“Everybody knows that but you make it work, you make difficult situations, you know, like travelling away, being away from each other, you make it work.”

Awkwardly, it has since emerged he gave the revealing chat to promote life-insurance company AIA.

He signed a deal with the Asian company last year to act as its global ambassador.